TheNextWeb startup awards are going on tonight in Paris; you may not have heard about it because, well, they haven’t really communicated about it. The original event was cancelled, and then became a strictly online event, and then… Well, frankly we didn’t really know what was going on. However, it seems that last Friday, attendees who paid for tickets to the original events received an email announcing that the event would be taking place today.
What’s interesting about it is that it’s been conveniently lined up to take place right after Start in Paris, one of the most well-attended monthly events in Paris, so it looks like they’ve foregone making a press push in favor of piggy-backing off of the event.

I doubt they will be distinguishing between guests who paid (it was only €7,50 a ticket) and people hanging out, so this could be a good opportunity to talk to The Next Web (Paul Sawers will be there) and maybe get an article on TNW.

After our last article about the event, in which two of the founding members of TNW commented with a mea culpa of sorts, it’ll be good for TNW to put this event behind them and look forward to their April Conference, during which they will have yet another awards show to organize.

So far, The Europas and the TNW startup awards have been a bit disappointing – perhaps there aren’t enough startups to necessitate a startup awards ceremony. Or, as I said to Paddy Cosgrave after The Europas, perhaps there is so great a need for such a ceremony, that it should get better effort, and should focus on educating people about what’s going on in Europe/France/Paris/whatever.

Either way, I’ll be at StartInParis tonight (no ticket needed, for last-minute stragglers), and I’ll be checking out the awards show after.